Transportation problems got so bad in the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools last year, the district’s Board of Education this year jettisoned its vendor and hired two new companies to manage the system.

But after the first week of school was still marred by late buses and other transportation issues, Facebook and other social media sites were lighting up with parents left wondering how – and, most importantly, when – the problems will be fixed.

First-day problems were bad enough to prompt Superintendent Dr. Michael Meissen to post a letter to parents on the district’s website (pccs.k12.mi.us), acknowledging the problem and vowing to fix it.

Routing issues

Meissen said the issues revolved around routing problems and did not rest with the drivers. The district over the summer hired two companies to run its privatized transportation system, replacing Michigan Educational Transportation Services. Durham Bus Services was brought in to provide the operational aspects – drivers, mechanics, etc. – while Missouri-based TransPar Group, Inc., was hired to manage the bus routing system.

That system is what let the district down in the first week, according to Meissen.

“The goal is to have transportation that is on time, reliable, safe and dependable,” Meissen said. “That is our commitment, it’s the expectation of the community. We do not have that experience currently.”

In a district where buses transport some 10,000 students a day, administrators were expecting problems, it being the first day of school with mostly new bus drivers and a new management team plotting the routes. The team from TransPar cut the number of bus routes from 127 to 120 and moved to a new numbering system using route numbers instead of bus numbers.

“With all these transitions going on, this is a major issue for our children, for our teachers and for our families,” Meissen said. “It’s got to be better and it’s got to be better right now.”

Enough drivers

At last week’s Board of Education meeting, TransPar’s Francisco Duprey said more than 140 drivers were hired for the 120 routes and his company provided training sessions for all of them.

But, Duprey told board members, there would be glitches. But he said TransPar and officials at Durham, hired along with TransPar to provide the drivers and other operational aspects of the system, did what they could to get everyone ready.

“We made some changes,” Duprey told the board. “There are going to be some bumps.”

Parents, too, expected bumps. But they were all over social media in the first week with complaints of delays as long as several hours and other complaints.

Jo Nielson and her family recently moved to the area from a district – she didn’t say which one – where transportation problems were minimal. After the “transportation was just awful” on Tuesday’s first day, she and her husband decided to remove their kids from district transportation altogether.

Sticking together

“When I picked my son up (Wednesday) from his elementary school, the buses were just arriving when we left at 4 p.m. (school ends at 3:45 p.m.),” said Nielson, a Canton resident. “I can understand bad weather. I can understand having to make adjustments to the bus schedule. I can even understand some confusion because it’s the first day of school. However, I really don’t understand how a ‘good’ school district could screw up their transportation this badly.”

Meissen and other administrators drew praise, though, by actually being out at various school buildings, trying to make sure changes were made and the system got smoother.

At Dodson Elementary School, for instance, parents noticed Principal April Quasarano and other teachers and staff still on hand trying to solve the first-day problems.

Kelly Hermann was at Dodson around 1:30 p.m. to drop off something for her daughter and saw the staff “working diligently” to get the last bus load of kids home, even though it was only a half-day.

“All of the staff were on the phones and clearly trying to make the best of a bad situation,” Hermann said. “My hat goes off to (Quasarano) and her staff.”

Meissen said the district is holding TransPar “accountable” and is working to get routes that “match the needs of our families and get our students to school safely and on time.”

“I would say our bus drivers are providing the level of service we are expecting,” Meissen said. “The organization of our school routes is not. We are expecting a greater level of service immediately and are holding (TransPar) accountable to meet the expectations of our parents and our school community.”